Welcome to STop, the Seattle Times Opinion blog where our editorial writers and editors share their evolving thoughts on a variety of issues. STop is a place where opinion writers and readers can exchange views and readers can learn more about how editorial positions are formed.

The opinions you read below are those of the individual writers, not necessarily views that will become formal positions of The Seattle Times. Respond to STop(Please be aware that your name and comments may be published here, unless you specify otherwise).

Currently, STop cannot automatically post readers' comments on the blog. However, the editorial staff will regularly post readers' comments. Your comments are sent directly to the individual editor or writer.

Tebelius did extraordinarly well, considering that her three Republican competitors are all elected officials, and she is not.

This was an audience more Republican than the district as a whole, so its picks among Republicans are more significant than its picks among Democrats. Still, being a business audience, it should have been more heavily for Alben, who is a business guy, than for Ross, the radio host, but the Democrats in the crowd went narrowly for Ross.

One caveat about this straw poll: I don’t know to what extent any of the candidates lobbied supporters to attend, knowing that a straw vote was coming.